I’d wondered what electricity would do to Mega Girl. I assume her anomaly would protect her against any burning from the heat of resistance. Likewise she probably doesn’t have to worry about nerve damage. But unless it prevents the electricity from passing through her body at all, it seems it can still affect her body. It could even induce fibrilation. Unless her anomaly is “smart” enough to telekinetically force her heart muscles to contract in coordination, she could actually die from this.

Also, Moonshadow, this really wasn’t your brightest move. You’re worried about his anomaly setting off the charges, but guess what would have happened if Alison hadn’t been quick enough to toss him away?

Graeme Sutton

lol yeah.

Nightsbridge

She told Allison her plan to start with; there are no charges, it’s just things that look like them full of shrapnel that will kill him and him alone if he uses them

motorfirebox

Well, I mean, something has to propel the shrapnel. The way I read it, there are charges, they’re just not big enough to blow up the dam or anything.

I still would have thought her power would have protected her from electricity; otherwise, Mary’s rant about being powerless next to her could be disproven by a simple taser.

There’s still the chance it’s her powers being all wonky after flying so hard.

motorfirebox

Well, I mean, her hair’s not on fire, so I don’t think a taser would slow her down too much.

Mechwarrior

“Invulnerability” comes in levels. It’s a whole lot easier to be invulnerable to a taser than to a huge power line that’s connected directly to a hydroelectric dam.

Classtoise

Except she has been invulnerable to fire.

It’s like her powers have been severely dumbed down to make Mary an actual threat.

MisterTeatime

Fire doesn’t pass through the human body- unless you’ve done something really weird like swallow one end of a flammable fuse, it can only cook you from the outside. An electric current behaves very differently and poses a different threat.

Tsapki

It’s been mentioned before that she can feel hot or cold. I am sure the electricity is no way an actual threat to harming her but it may be momentarily messing with her ability to move.

concussive shockwave is the most dangerous part of an explosion. A shockwave at that range with that much explosive wouldn’t even leave a recognizable greasy smear.

masterofbones

While moonshadow’s planning has not always covered everything, she seems to think that the shrapnel would be necessary to hurt Furnace. So either she forgot about the shockwave(possible, especially since she forgot that he is immune to shrapnel), or he is immune to it.

Lots of bits, though, at point-blank range, accompanied by an also-at-point-blank-range explosion, could present a challenge, though.

masterofbones

Lots of bits – Not a problem. His heat is an AOE.

Point blank range – bullets are *fast*. If his heat aura was small enough to avoid hurting others, but still able to vaporize bullets, it essentially is working at point plank range.

Explosion – Only potential threat. He is immune to heat, but it is unknown whether he has any resistance to pressure/shockwaves. However, Mary seems to think that the shrapnel would be necessary to kill him, so either she forgot about the shockwave, he is immune to it, or the explosion wouldn’t be big enough to kill him anyway.

GreatWyrmGold

It still sounds like a bluff. I am not sure how you’d make explosives that detonate under those specific circumstances, let alone ones that would fit easily under someone’s clothes.

MisterTeatime

It helps that his anomaly is generating extreme heat from his body. Lots of explosives will go off in those conditions.

Rod

She’s talking to Furnace. She’s probably afraid of him instinctively roasting everything in the room.

IIRC, she put them on him just to force him to not flame-on, because they’re only strong enough to hurt him, not anyone else.

GreatWyrmGold

Still sounds like a bluff. I’m not sure how you’d make explosives that detonate under those specific circumstances, let alone ones that would fit easily under someone’s clothes.

Loranna

I don’t think Furnace is listening to Mary right now. Heck, he looks half-ready to lob a fireball at Alison.

Speaking of Alison, she does seem at least somewhat hurt by the electricity. Kind of impressive that she managed to throw Furnace so accurately. Pity she didn’t think to jump up to that spot with Furnace in tow -_-

Loranna

Skylar Green

She’s had a lot of practice at throwing things. People. Etc.

Dvandemon

she’d have to practice, super accuracy isn’t one of her anomalies.

zarawesome

I really thought she was gonna hover over the water.

Pol Subanajouy

The flames in Furnace’s eyes make me feel like a tragic misunderstanding is eminent. As is a literal blow up.

Pol Subanajouy

“Mega-Girl! There you are! LET US CALMLY TALK ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING SO THAT I CAN ENSURE THAT WE HANDLE THIS UNUSUAL SITUATION LIKE ADULTS AND NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS.”

Jeremy

I’m not sure, but I get the impression that might not be how he reacts…

Kid Chaos

If Furnace blows himself up, won’t Moonshadow get hurt/killed as well? She seems to be a little too close to the action.

Tsapki

She actually explained back in page 137 that the bomb is only some shrapnel made to kill him if he uses his power but little else. Sure, if Furnace scorches the whole room on his own she could be in trouble, but I am guessing she might hope the bomb kills him before he amps his power up to that level.

Pol Subanajouy

I’m going to steal that line. Just so you know.

Graeme Sutton

“Hey Mega-Girl, you can survive getting toasted right?”

Classtoise

“I dunno, I keep gaining and losing powers as is convenient to the plot!”

masterofbones

Hey, that’s going too far. She just forgot to jump/fly. She isn’t used to having to worry about her own safety.

Urthman

Presumably super-villains have tried attacking Mega Girl with electricity before, so obviously it doesn’t kill her. But Moonshadow would have been around to know that it hurts or stuns or whatever it’s doing to her right now.

When I first read Mary’s line, I didn’t do it justice in my head, because I immediately thought, “Um, duh, Mary, you put them there!” I had forgotten about them being fakes, I had forgotten Mary’s tone/voice, etc, whatever, it’s very early where I am. Point is, this confused the heck out of me first time through.

Second time… well, I’m still a little confused. Why the speech from Mary at all? Why would she say that? What does she care? She was going to destroy him anyway.

Insanenoodlyguy

Because illusion powers don’t do shit against “everything in this room is on fire” power. You don’t need to see when you can AOE attack. He might die, and she wants that, sure. But if he does that now she’s still got massive 2nd-3rd degree burns on most of her body, the water is boiling so that doesn’t really help much, and Allison is probably not being distracted by illusions at that point.

I don’t think he even realizes Mary did this, or even that she’s present. He seems to think Alison drugged and kidnapped him. Which is why I’m just shaking my head at how bad this is going to go….

Pol Subanajouy

That’s how I’m reading his expression in the last frame. Uuuuugh. >_<

Rumble in the Tumble

If I were him, I wouldn’t think the kidnapping was Alison’s doing. I mean, what kind of a plan is that?
1. Kidnap a guy
2. Take him to some shitty basement
3. Tie him/Drug him
4. Make him watch as I get electrocuted
5. ????
What’s the next step of her masterplan?

He also seems to think that she has it in for him. And there is animosity on both sides, so he’s not totally wrong there. He thinks that if she can strangle that guy at the party, she’s totally capable of this.

lizasweetling

the guy is on drugs inhibiting his ability to lie= drugs that make it hard to make ordinary decisions/make it hard to formulate cohesive thought.
The drugs are certainly talking.

Also. This really was a terrible plan on Mary’s part- “Yes, I’ll screw up his inhibitions before standing in a room with him tied to a shrapnel-bomb. I’m sure he will be in a fit state to listen to and understand my warning about the bomb :)”
Right.

Eric Cartman

6. Profit!

Rod

Oh, COME ON Furnace! Of all times to wake up!

Lakstoties

There is NO way Mary could have cut through a cable like that anytime soon. It would have taken her a half hour at best with motorized equipment, and: The hacksaw/blade/etc would have arc-welded onto the first cable she tried to slice, the arcing would have fried Mary and possible arc flashed her. Also, a cable like that would have had several anchors, wire of that gauge would NO be flexible enough or even be housed in a flexible conduit, and the second the arc started to happen breakers would have tripped and alarms would have go off throughout the entire dam.

Also… Furnace would be too dazed and confused to really do much. Sodium Thiopental is used to calm down people before normal general anesthesia. Sure he’d probably be yelling at whoever asking “The fuck is going on here?!”, but he’d still be pretty sedated and not able to do much more.

Argh…

Arthur Frayn

Mary’s blade seems not to be metal, it’s some white substance that’s very sharp but not sharp enough to cut Alison. Furnace is unfortunately confused enough to ignite on seeing someone he hates rather than listen to the advice he’s being told.

masterofbones

Doesn’t matter, the arcing should have made some pretty awesome explosions before she was anywhere near being done cutting the wire.

There’s no reason for the electricity to affect her at all, Megagirl should be like a bird on a wire, other than the rubber soles of her shoes nothing is touching ground and rubber doesn’t conduct. Movie villains are fond of throwing electrical cables into water to electrocute people but by and large they’d be baffled in real life when nothing happened except a breaker tripping. And BTW, high voltage wires *do* have circuit breakers. I’ve watched linemen reset them using long fiberglass poles (fiberglass doesn’t conduct, duh).

The conductivity of water may be lower than the conductivity of a human body, but it varies greatly, and while electricity tends to take the path of least resistance, at least some electricity goes through the higher resistance path in a voltage-divider circuit. The dangerous path is probably from Alison’s right ankle to her left, where the water closer to the wires could have a higher potential, especially if the best path to ground (grounded pipe or grate) is nearer her left foot.

The Interwebs seem to agree that roughly 6 milliamps across the heart will kill a bio-normal, and even small amounts of current can cause muscles to seize and inflict great pain (again, on a bio-normal, at least). So I believe that Alison could be zapped for a short period of time, as cables as big as drawn appear to be designed to deliver a huge amount of current, so it could take a little while to trigger the circuit breaker. It should trip in a second or two, I would imagine, unless the circuit breakers were damaged or sabotaged.

I do agree with the folks commenting on how the cable was cut — I don’t see how that could be done without shorting something, even with non-conductive blades.

Of course, all of this is kind of silly to argue about — are we really arguing accurate energy modeling in a world where someone can turn their body into fire or throw something heavy into space? This is a fun, exciting comic, using a well established superhero trope of electricity and standing water.

Okay, I figured someone would bring up the toaster in the bathtub sooner or later. There’s a couple of *big* differences between a toaster in the bathtub and this scenario. 1) you’re immersed in the water in the bathtub between the top of the bathtub and the drain of the bathtub, 2) there is only one ground point in a bathtub — the drain — and thus part of your body lies between the toaster and ground, and 3) thus you’re the shortest path to ground (since the salt water in your body is lower conductivity than fresh water). But in the case of simply standing in a puddle of water where the nearest ground is *not* through you? Nuh-uhn, no way. At most she’d feel some tingle between the top of her ankles and the bottom of her ankles. Probably not that, even, since the electricity would be going to ground well away from her.

Note that I’ve actually worked on live electrical circuits so have a pretty darn good idea of how they work. These are likely 440v wires going to the various motors in the plant, giving their size and thin insulation, and definitely have breakers that should trip rather rapidly, but even if the breakers don’t trip we’re not talking about something that should affect someone standing in a puddle of water yards away who is *not* the shortest path to ground.

james

to be fair she just got that power so she might not think about it right away

Johan

Also she hurt herself using it, and she’s in a lot of pain, so might think it would just make things worse.

Stephanie Gertsch

Poor Mary. She’s the one talking to Furnace but all he cares about is Mega Girl. No matter what she does, she’s invisible.

…Mega Girl!
You’re currently looking positively electric! It would be a shame if someone were to negatively affect this charged situation! Oh wow, have I been drugged recently? Sorry, my anomaly metabolizes most harmful substances in a way that puts me into a fugue state of steaming-hot terrible puns.
I’ve been told that it’s very painful to witness, and some people say it’s the real reason why I have so many ex-girlfriends. But it’s not, they’re just crazy.

Skylar Green

Seeing all the comments here, I’m gonna laugh if Furnace calmly unhooks the vest from himself, tosses it aside, and flies down to knock Megs (I’m guessing she’d throw someone into the sun if they called her “Megs” instead of “Mega Girl”… although she’d probably think they were being pandering jerks if they called her “Mega Woman” or the gender-neutral “Mega Person” so I dunno) out of the electricity.

motorfirebox

Or just evaporated the water.

MrSokar

Now I’m curious what would happen if someone calls her Above-Average-Female.

Lostman

Why do I have this funny feeling that someone isn’t going to get out this situation alive; my money on Mary.

and as long as her body’s still conductive, the electricity could mess with her nerve signalling pathways, even if it causes no permanent nerve damage. In fact, depending on whether her anomaly is still active when she’s braindead, it could be pretty hard to administer CPR to her.

She probably had a different plan than “shouting at him from the shadows while he wakes up after being thrown in the air by Alison”.

MrSokar

This page makes we want to see a team based game that has a mechanic in that if a party member gets knocked out you have to throw them into a railing to revive them.

Unmaker

Why is no-one pointing out that Mary may have planned that as a killing move? The combination of electrocution, the explosives, Furnace’s fire, and the possibility of collapse/drowning might actually kill even Mega-Girl. Plus Furnace + water = steam and breathing scalding steam can’t be good even for Mega-Girl.

Mechwarrior

Because she wasn’t expecting Alison to show up in the first place and therefore couldn’t possibly have planned for Alison to kick a hole in a pipe and flood the room, rendering herself vulnerable to electrocution.

Unmaker

I didn’t say she planned that far ahead – just because it was impromptu doesn’t mean the intent wasn’t there. It call still be a (quickly) planned killing move.

Mechwarrior

An action taken in response to an unexpected move by an opponent that wasn’t anticipated cannot by its nature be planned.

Unless Mary had already seen that electrical conduit and noted the potential to cut it in order to electrocute an opponent after flooding the floor of the room, she didn’t plan it. Mary is running an Indy Ploy here.

Micah Davis

Calling that he saves Mega Girl and is concerned for her. He’ll die when he attempts to save her. It’ll be sad, a clear sign that good people can believe really stupid and dangerous things. Also, to contrast him and moon shadow.

madjam1231

OK so how the hell did moonshadow not get electrocuted when she was sawing through the cable? like her knife doesn’t seem to have a plastic handle or any handle so, how did she do it and survive?

Mechwarrior

She was wearing gloves made out of plot armor.

Zmm

She flies, she might lose invulnerabiltiy. She doens’t know if its “fly or defense” or if fthe longer she flies the more power it drains and the less other abilities she has.
So.. she can easily tank the shocking, but if she flies and loses defense.. a knife to the heart or neck is the end for sure.

Zmm

Is he seriously going to think Megagirl is doing this? The one who is being shocked and is injured?
and not the disembodied voice telling him he’s strapped with explosives? the one who came from near him and not on the floor shrieking in pain?
I know your groggy but still.

masterofbones

Drugs are wonderful!

Daniel Vogelsong

Unless his eyes are burning… with desire.
Suddenly, the tone of the entire comic series changes. Flashback: We see Furnace in his mid teens pining after Alison, as he sees her as the only one who can survive being with him. This desire continues to kindle and burn, even as Alison rebuffs him. He grows through the nice guys phase, but in the wrong direction, becoming the asshole we know today.

AmberWriter

D: I don’t know how I feel about this

Helen

This is terrible but I can’t stop laughing.

MisterTeatime

“they” (from “they will kill you”): the explosives, from the previous sentence.

Perlite

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, ^_^;

MisterTeatime

Practically everybody seems to be looking at the last panel and thinking “oh shit, Chris thinks Alison is the bad guy!”… and forgetting that if he knows she’s here, it’s because he can see her, and if he can see her, he can see that she’s clearly in trouble. She’s currently incapable of threatening him with explodey death- and if she wanted to threaten him, she wouldn’t need explosives.

Whether or not he classifies her as an enemy, if he’s lucid enough to recognize her, he’s lucid enough to recognize her in pain. I have to conclude that the last panel is his “I’ll save you!” face.

For thematic bonus points, she’s pretty clearly under the same sort of attack as he was, the last time he was conscious- electricity as a counter to overwhelming force.

Mechwarrior

He’s drugged and kind of irrational under the best of circumstances. Expecting him to actually figure out anything beyond “I was attacked, I feel like shit, and there’s Mega Girl, the person I most hate in this world,” is probably unlikely.

Sebby

For everyone wanting/waiting for her to jump/fly, she can’t. Because of the electricity all of her muscles are locked in place and she can’t move.

masterofbones

Well yeah, NOW it is too late. She had time to throw a dude though

Adam McKinney Souza

Reminds me of Order of the Stick.

“No, Belkar, it’s like she’s got that monk class feature that lets you jump as far as you want, but with conclusions.”

Tsapki

Might have been an instant reaction rather than a logical step. Recall she has mentioned that she breaks stuff all the time without trying, so she might have worried she would break Furnace’s neck if she jumped and overdid it some.

MinorGryph

I think Furnace saw where Moonshadow was hiding when he woke up.

WUZLE .

You could not cut through a cable that thick with a knife. If you did, the resulting arc flash would be the equivalent of a small, very hot bomb. And if you somehow did that and the cable fell into the water, someone standing in the water would most likely be just fine unless they touched something grounded. In no case would you get a massive flame-like arc as we see here around the person in the water.

ruhrow

But she’s always been able to mega-jump…why not just leap to that conveniently located tower with Furnace still on her shoulder?

The answer still and always being, I suppose “she didn’t think of it”, but I find “I forgot I could jump” to be more of a stretch than “I forgot I could fly.”

About

SFP follows the adventures of a young middle-class American with super-strength, invincibility and an overwhelming sense of social injustice.